The Start of a New Year, Hallelujah!

Life has felt very undisciplined and quite frustrating lately, and after two really weird unfocused years when it comes to goals, I'm ready to get back into a routine and get things done!  I feel like I've heard more people bashing goals and resolutions this year than previous years, but I don't care, I really love goals and the way they push you to be better at life!   This year I want to get re-organized and uncomfortable!  Here are a few things that I'm putting into motion in 2016!


FINANCES: After paying off our debt in 2013. We kinda got a bit lazy in our budgeting.  We had been reining it in for so long it was nice to chill out for a bit.  What I thought might be a 3-6 month relaxation on the budget, turned into 2 years! Yikes!  Don't worry we were still keeping a budget, we just could have been doing a better job at it!

GOAL: So in 2016 we want to save $12,000 by June and start paying off our house before the end of the year. (I think i just lost my breathe when I typed that!  This is the goal that makes me nervous, we will definitely be looking for "fat" in the budget to make this happen!)



FITNESS: This year I'm turning 30 in June!  I'm excited and a bit scared too, if I'm being honest.  Since graduating from college, sitting at a desk job for 5 years and having two kids within 17 months of each other, I've gained about 30 extra pounds.  I'm really ready to not be carrying those pounds around anymore.  While losing weight is great its not my absolute goal, I really just want to feel better, not be tired all the time, increase my energy, and find a healthy lifestyle including food choices and fitness that works for my life.

GOAL: Lose 30 by 30!



FIELD: My home is my workplace. It's going on two years in April since we've moved and I think its about time to finally finish getting everything organized and in place. I've also been wanting to get back into blogging.  I had been blogging pretty consistently for a while but then got out of the habit probably after Toby was born.  Its time to get back on it!

GOALS: Finish our master bedroom in January, organize our spare room in February, clean up our basement (cellar) to a usable state in March, and organize our storage room in the barn in April, or May depending on how cold it its! Write one blog post a week!



Other Random Goals that I didn't neatly categorize: I really want to get my pictures off my computer and into photo books.  I'd really like to get to the point where I'm organizing my pictures throughout the year and then making a big photo book at the end of every year.  That being said I have a lot of back work to do. Ideally I'd like to have books every year since we've had kids, that means I have to go back to 2012.

GOALS: Put 2012 photo book together during the 1st quarter of 2016, the 2013 photo book during the 2nd quarter, the 2014 book during the 3rd quarter, the 2015 book and hopefully by then I will have organized 2016 as well so I can do two books in the last quarter of the year!


I'm wincing with each goal I'm typing, now that I put it out there, I'm going to have to actually do it! I've tried to keep them pretty attainable, but they still are stretching! There are some other ideas brewing in my head but I'll leave it at that for now, I need to get to work!!  :)


Have you made any goals for 2016?  I'd love to hear about them if you have, comment below and let me know!


Here's to a better 2016!
-Monica

My First 5k

The first weekend in October, Matt and I participated in the Lititz Fall Blast 5k.  I've never done a 5k, and for that matter I don't even enjoy running that much but it was one of my goals for this year so I finally got up the guts to sign up for one and do it! After having Piper it took me a while to get back into things.  First of all I just didn't have the extra energy at first to exercise, not to mention it was the last thing on my mind!  It was probably when Piper was 6 months old that I decided I really needed to get back into a workout routine.  Matt and I started running in the evenings at a nearby park and Piper would come along in our jogging stroller.  It was pretty rough at first to get back into things but we took it slow, and Matt is always a great encourager!  Shortly after that one of my work friends told me about the couch to 5k apps that were out there so I downloaded one on my iPod and we jumped into the middle of one of the programs and finished it up the week of the race!

The race itself was a bit rough.  It was October but it was in the high 80s and muggy (ugh) when we ran that morning!  I felt like I never hit my stride which was really frustrating and the whole run was just hard.  I think some of it had to do with the fact that we ran the first mile faster than we normally do which didn't bode so well for the rest of the race.  Rooky mistake. All in all we completed the race just under 37 minutes, averaging a little over 12 minutes per mile.  Nothing to brag about but we finished :) and I can check one more thing off of my goals list for this year!  I'm thinking I might try to do a least one race a year just to do it.  Overall it was a good experience and while Piper didn't run with us she was waiting to cheer us on with uncle Shannon and aunt Jennifer when we came down the home stretch!  :)

Books

If you remember my last post, my goal this year is to read a book a month.  To be honest, I got a bit off track this summer, even though it looks like I've read a book a month I'm pretty sure I skipped June and read two in August. In the end it all works out, but I need to get it together and finish out the year.  That being said its already the 11th of September and I've started 3 books but not really interested in any of them... sigh.   Guess I better pick it up and finish one of them soon!

So here is an overview of what I read:

1. April: Tactics by Gregory Koukl
The church I attend had an apologetics conference this past March called "Defending the Faith."  It really challenged me to start defending what I believe instead of continuing to be passive and non confrontational on the subject. What this book does is give you different tactics and angles to play in conversation that will help you poke holes in theories to reveal the truth behind the statements.  If this kind of thing interests you I would definitely recommend this read.

2. May: START by Jon Acuff
Love, love, love this book!  Just the tagline itself is enough to get me excited.  Jon Acuff is a great writer and really hits the nail on the head, challenging you to move from just being average to being awesome, and getting started in doing what you love to do.  Very practical, very encouraging, if you need a boost in business or in life to get you on the path you want to be on, I highly recommend this book!

3. July: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
So I guess I technically read this in July, it was the last couple days of the month.  Its a short read but believe it or not, I've never read it before.  The new movie just came out with Leonardo DiCaprio and I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie.  I still haven't seen the movie yet but I really enjoyed the book.  It was shorter than I thought it would be and the story line definitely took a turn I wasn't expecting. All in all a good read!

4/5. August: Be Your Own Shrink by Dr. Kevin Leman & Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
 Both of these books are just ok.  I read them but I wouldn't say you can't live another day without having read them!  haha.  Be Your Own Shrink was given to me by a friend along with The Birth Order Book that I was inquiring about. (This is one of the ones I've started for September).  It gives a quick overview of personalities, birth order, early childhood memories & love languages, to help you understand why you are the way you are.  It is interesting but I didn't feel like it went into enough depth to really dig anything up.  I guess you would need a real shrink for that! 

Angels and Demons, I picked up while on vacation from the stash of books that were at the house and read it in two days.  It was a fun read, kept me interested, but overall wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  It's what you would expect from a Dan Brown book.


So thats a wrap! What have you been reading these days?  Any recommendations to add to my list for the last months of the year?


-Monica

*all images from amazon.com
 

What I'm Reading...

 I was an avid reader all throughout middle school and high school.  I loved reading!  A good book could have me hooked like that, it was as if nothing else existed at the moment. At some point during my high school years I realized I had gotten stuck on romance novels.  I did not want to be a romance novel girl.  It was then that I decided to take a break from fiction.  Some time later I graduated high school and started college and I soon had my plate full with reading assignments and other activities. Aside from required reading I had pretty much stopped reading altogether.

Then with a college degree under my belt, a newly acquired full time job, and the pursuit of quite an attractive young man my post college life left me little time for leisurely reading.

Flash forward a 5 years (yikes! can't believe its 5 years already) I still have that same job, and I married that handsome man but lets face it, as far as reading goes, its time to get back at it.  My goal this year is a bit modest but something to get me back on pace: read one book a month!  With a new baby on hip and working part time I didn't want to go to overboard! 

My current philosophy on reading is to use it to advance and challenge my thought processes and ideas.  Although I still try and stay away from fiction, I might throw one or two in there to keep up my stamina.   I've heard it said from many different people that readers are leaders, and that is something I hope to be someday!  So hears to moving forward and growing!  What have I read so far?  Here you go!  

JANUARY: Quitter by Jon Acuff

I can not say enough good things about this book, it's absolutely fabulous!  The tagline is "closing the gap between your day job and your dream job"  Our society creates heroines out of people who take the leap of faith and quit their job to follow their dreams.  While this is a great idea it's important to make sure your timing is right or else what you thought was your dream could turn into a nightmare.  Jon does a great job of getting in there and giving you the not so fun, but honest truth, about common mistakes on doing this.  When done properly being a quitter can actually be a positive experience and following your dream won't be quite as risky!

FEBRUARY: Getting NAKED by Patrick Lencioni

I literally read this the last week of February because I forgot about reading until then! This book actually worked out quite well it was one I couldn't put down.  It's a business fable about how vulnerability in business can create amazing customer loyalty and produce huge dividends.  Patrick unpacks three simple fears that commonly prevent us from being transparent with each other. Simple but powerful! 

 

MARCH: To Kill a Lion by Bruce Lengeman

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

Sexual addiction is something that is running rampant in our culture.  There is a pull quote in the book that says "The F.B.I.'s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography. It's true."  Bruce goes through his own story of sexual healing and what God has showed him through the process.  This book has some profound insights on this issue and takes you step by step through a process to overcome the addiction as well as move forward with a healthy sexual life as God designed and intended it to be.  This is good book but definitely not a quick read.  It took me a bit to get through it but the information is great!

This book has been sitting on our shelf for a while and I've just never gotten around to reading it.  While I was working on To Kill a Lion I needed something a little lighter and easier to read to keep me going so I decided to pick this up!  To be honest I read it in a day, it was one of those days that I just really didn't feel like doing anything and the book was one I didn't want to put down!  Ever since I was a kid I've always had these images in my imagination of what Heaven is like, but you never really know if they are true or not.  This book is really encouraging!  It puts images to those childhood ideas.  It's a story about a little boy that went into emergency surgery for appendicitis. While he was in surgery he got to experience a bit of heaven.  His experience starts coming out a year afterwards when he begins talking about things that he really should have known nothing about.  His parents slowly begin to piece the story together as different events bring out different parts of his experience in heaven. 

So there you go! April is already well under way and I'm working on another great book...  excited to share it with you once I'm finished.  Until then get reading! 

-Monica